Setting grazing plans and stocking rates can be especially challenging during a drought, such as the one currently afflicting much of the western United States. The Grassland Productivity Forecast tool, or Grass-Cast, can help provide insight into how the grass production through the summer will play out. The Grass-Cast tool covers the Great Plains region and has recently expanded to include Arizona and New Mexico, two states dealing with moderate to extreme drought. In this webinar, Brian Fuchs, Monitoring Coordinator with the National Drought Mitigation Center, and Dannele Peck, Director of the USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub, discussed the current drought conditions and what the Grass-Cast forecast tells us about the rest of summer.
This webinar was organized by the Drought Learning Network (DLN) Beginning Farmers and Ranchers team. The DLN links climate service providers with resource managers to increase landscape and community resilience in current and future drought. At this meeting, climate service providers shared information with and answered questions from beginning farmers and ranchers.
7/22/2020
Drought 2020 in Eastern New Mexico and the Southern High Plains – a conversation features experienced cattle growers discussing how they plan for and manage drought. New Mexico ranchers Mimi and Tom Sidwell and James Stewart explain how they plan for and manage their rangelands and herd during drought, how 2020 measures up to previous droughts, and their experience with marketing during COVID. NM State Climatologist, Dr. Dave DuBois, provides a drought update. This webinar is a collaborative effort of many partners through the Drought Learning Network, which aspires to link climate service providers with land managers to foster drought resilience.
According to the June 30, 2020 U.S. Drought Monitor, 68% of Colorado was in drought, including most of Southern Colorado in Extreme Drought (D3) and even Exceptional Drought (D4) in the southeast corner. Conditions include parched ground, stressed vegetation and increased fire risk.